49.] [Footnote 92: Plin.Hist.Natur.xix.i.

[In Prooem.] * Note: Pliny says Puteoli, which seems to have been the usual landing place from the East.
See the voyages of St.Paul, Acts xxviii.

13, and of Josephus, Vita, c.
3--M.] Whatever evils either reason or declamation have imputed to extensive empire, the power of Rome was attended with some beneficial consequences to mankind; and the same freedom of intercourse which extended the vices, diffused likewise the improvements, of social life.

In the more remote ages of antiquity, the world was unequally divided.

The East was in the immemorial possession of arts and luxury; whilst the West was inhabited by rude and warlike barbarians, who either disdained agriculture, or to whom it was totally unknown.